Crescent Moon
by raisethecolours
Summary: Basically what happens after the summer finale. Valentina is dead. Jasmine is dying. And Brian? Well you'll have to wait and find out about him...
1. A Brotherhood

Part One: Alek

My head felt like it had been dumped in a bucket of ice. Words kept repeating themselves over and over in my head but I tried to block them out. Left, right, left right. Just keep moving- don't think about it, I said as I walked up the stone stairs towards our apartment. Left, right, left, ri-

'_I think I'm in love with Brian.' _

My hands gripped into fists and I punched a lamppost. It wobbled a little and the light went out. Oops. I quickly walked away and to the elevator.

"Left, right." I said out loud, even though I was no longer walking. My eager hands punched several buttons, and I willed the stupid cart to move faster. I had to talk to Jasmine. Jasmine was like my rock when it came to stuff like this. I knew she was on a date with Zane, but maybe- just maybe- she was home early. I knew she would calm me down.

Finally, the elevator dinged and I walked to the apartment. I opened the door.

My eyes glinted in the darkness. Two blurred shapes lay on the floor. They looked like bodies. Unmoving bodies. Before I could go to them I saw the glint of a cats eye' and turned to face-

Zane?

No. It couldn't be. Thoughts whirred through my head at a million miles an hour. Why was Zane here? Who was lying on the floor. Then my brain made the inevitable connection.

Zane smiled, as if he knew the conclusion I had come to and was proud of himself for it.

I used my night vision. Valentina's body was in an awkward position. Was she paralyzed? I smelled the poison in the air. And the blood. My eyes wandered and I fought a gasp.

There was Jasmine, her hair in her face, a single tear welling on her tan cheek as she stared, blankly at her mom.

"I'll kill you." I said, growling. I readied my claws, waiting for the attack. Ready and willing to fight back with Zane for what he had done to Jasmine and Valentina.

"Is that any way to treat your brother?"

I growled again, anger ripping through me. "You are no brother of mine."

Zane smirked. "Okay then lil' bro. Don't forget about me. Oh and tell Jasmine I said good bye, if she ever wakes up. She was a really good kisser."

"How could you, Zane? She was our cousin. They were our family."

He laughed, a laugh so similar to mine I wanted to tear his throat out.

"Is that what they told you? Ah, well. That's why I never wanted anything to do with them. They can tell you about it when they wake up. Oh, wait." He laughed to himself again and I felt my claws on my hands.

"Then I guess I'll better tell you," he continued. "Jasmine isn't your cousin. She's not related to you at all. They just told you that because they knew you would be powerful and they wanted you. I can't believe you actually believed their silly little lies." He laughed again.

This time, I didn't wait. I lunged.

In seconds, I was on top of Zane, but I could feel his strength. I fought to keep him from flipping me onto my back and reached wildly. I felt claws connect with skin and focused on Zane's face. A bloody red line zagged across his face in an almost straight line from his right ear to his chin. He gaped at me, stunned.

"And I thought you didn't have it in you, little bro. Well done." Then he pounced. I was on my back, fighting to keep his claws off my face. I managed to kick him in the stomach and with a crash he went flying through the window. I wanted so badly to hear him fall, hear him hit the ground with a solid thud, but no such noise came. I heard him scamper down the wall and disappear into the night. The coward.

My claws retracted, and immediately I was on one knee, looking at Jasmine. Valentina was long gone. I could tell. But Jasmine had short breaths in her, coming once or twice a minute. I felt the blood and the knife by her side and felt where the knife had jabbed deep into her skin.

"Jasmine?" I said, willing for my rock, my best friend, my cou… well she wasn't exactly my cousin anymore. Zane had been telling the truth, I knew it. But I couldn't deal with those facts right now.

I had to do something.


	2. Last Breath

Part Two: Chloe

Kissing Brian. It felt so...right. His lips on mine in perfect symmetry- the push and pull I'd felt towards him finally unleashed. I wanted him to run his fingers through my hair, down my spine. It felt so perfect, more perfect than anything I'd felt in a long time.

I remembered, briefly, the words he had spoken to me before I had lost my eight life.

"Chloe, I love you." He had said in a frantic voice that sounded like a whisper in my ear but must have been a shout. And it had been his voice I had heard when I woke again, his face I saw in the beginning of my seventh life, before his lips met mine.

"Brian?" I had said. And then we were kissing. He kissed me and I kissed him back.

I wanted to tell Brian that I loved him too. Because I did, there was no thought or hesitation. Now that we had kissed I felt like I knew everything about how the world ran, and I knew I loved him.

I pulled away, looked into his eyes and gazing up at him I opened my mouth to speak.

Then the rubber band of my Mai brain snapped me back into reality. I gasped. I was Mai. Brian was human. Mai and humans can't kiss-if they do…

"Oh, no." was all I could manage.

Brian looked confused. He put his hand over his heart and my Mai senses allowed me to hear it, gradually slowing.

It was like a bad horror movie. Brian's heart slowed until there was one last resilient beat, and then nothing. I felt for his pulse, hoping beyond hope that I'd heard wrong. Nothing.

I looked into his golden eyes and saw that they were gone, in some far off place. His perfect lips were parted slightly, one of his hands palm up, the other limp in my lap. I grabbed him and laid him across my lap. Tears were streaming down my face and blurring my vision, so that I heard Amy and Paul before I saw them.

I looked up at them, as they registered the blood on my shirt with the sounds of the gunshots and Brian lying in my lap.

"He's dead." I whispered. Blank shock filled their faces.

"Chloe-" Amy began, but she stopped. She must have seen the look in my eyes that told her not to talk. Either that or she didn't have anything to say.

"He's dead." I repeated, more forcefully. "I kissed him and I killed him." My body shook with the weight of that statement. I wanted to cry my eyes out, but the tears had stopped flowing. I felt the blood stain on my shirt where the bullets had hit me. The wound was gone, sealed up, and the bullets in me had been dissolved by my Unitor body. Well at least it was good for something.

But all my Unitor powers could do, besides give me nine lives of course, was unite. It couldn't bring Brian back.

I heard footsteps. My eyes darted to the doorway. What if it was the white suit lady with her gun? What if she killed Paul and Amy.

But it was only Alek. I sighed in relief. If Alek was here, the white suit lady was gone.

"Chloe?" he said. He looked at Brian, lying in my arms and he grimaced.

"Well, that's the usual fate for our humans."

"Alek!" said Amy, angrily. She looked back and forth from me to Alek, expecting me to retaliate. But I just sat there and took his words because I knew they were the truth. All the fight was out of me.

"There are some order members upstairs." I said in a low voice, not looking at him but instead staring fixedly at Paul's left sneaker. "Passed out."

Alek nodded, then looked away too. I sensed there was something he was hiding from me, but I didn't care. All I could think about was the unmoving body in my arms that moments ago had been kissing me with a passion that had held no comparison to Aleks' kiss.

"You lost a life." Alek said to me. It wasn't a question, but I nodded anyway. Silence filled the room but my head was filled with thoughts. If only I'd told Brian everything, then maybe he would still be here.

Alek's voice again cut through my thoughts. "Valentina is dead. And Jasmine is dying."

I wanted to ask him why he was here, then. If Jasmine was going to die and he knew it why wasn't he trying to save her?

"I brought them to the hospital, but there's nothing they can do for Valentina. They're trying to save Jasmine now."

Oh.

Unable to look at Alek any longer, I looked back at Brian. My heart broke into a million pieces again, but I stared again. Something was wrong. Brian's body looked warm, his cheeks a little red. Had this happened to Xavier when he died? I pressed my hand to his forehead and felt the sweat.

Alek rushed to my shoulder, sensing my panic. "What's wro-" but his question was cut of short by something so incredible, so unexpected it made his jaw drop and my heart pound against my chest.

Brian breathed.


	3. Nothing

**Hey Guys! Thank you for all the reviews. I'm really enjoying writing this and your positive reviews all made my day! Anyway I suppose I should have said this a while ago but I do not own TNLOCK. sadly. Review Please!**

Part Three: Brian

I felt like I was floating. Maybe its because I was.

I looked down and, yup. I was ten or twelve feet of the floor and below me on a large marble staircase was a girl. She didn't seem to notice me, which was weird because if someone was floating above me I would definitely have noticed. The girl was very pretty with golden curly hair and hazel eyes. She was crying as she reached out to a guy in front of her. I didn't really know whether to call him a boy or a man. Neither seemed to fit. He wasn't old enough to be called a man, yet he wasn't a little boy anymore.

The guy was holding his heart. He seemed to be…dying. He fell backwards a little and I caught a glimpse of his face.

I wanted to gasp but I couldn't. Because the guy I was floating above-the dying guy- was me. I tried to float closer but it was like I was looking through a telescope. I tried to remember… why was I dying? but my mind was blank. All I knew was that I was dying and there was nothing I could do about it.

Was this some kind of sick joke? I tried to turn around but my head, or the spot where my eyes were, as I didn't seem to have a body, was fixed. I couldn't pry my eyes away from it.

The guy- err- the guy that was me gave one last soft breath before I sensed the life fly away from him. A small ball of light morphed from his chest and hovered in the air. The girl didn't react. Why didn't she look at it? Could she not the little ball of light?

Suddenly the light flashed and weaved. I couldn't tell which way it was going until it exploded, a huge flash in my face. The light covered me, then swallowed me whole, until I felt nothing and saw nothing but bright, white light.

I landed on a white-floored room. I knew it was white-floored because I landed, eyes open, on my face. I picked myself up. The walls were white, too and glowing so I couldn't see when one wall flowed into another. I heard footsteps behind me. Out of the glowing whiteness I saw a man. He wore dark clothes and had dark skin, which jarred the image of him violently against the white walls. Three long slash marks shone on his face in the white glow. He smiled and I got a creepy feeling in my stomach like if I could I should run away from this guy. But I didn't have anywhere to run. It was weird. I was in nothing but empty space but I felt so claustrophobic.

"Hello, Brian." His head was tilted down, menacingly, as if he would charge at me in an instant. I tried to make my feet unglue themselves from the ground but they wouldn't move.

"How do you know my name?" I asked, trying to keep the tremor out of my voice.

The man laughed. He didn't answer my question.

"Where am I?" I tried, taking a different approach.

"No where in particular. Here, there. It's not very important anyway."

I couldn't help but notice he still hadn't answered my question.

"What-" I said, about to ask another question but the man finally decided to talk and interrupted me.

"You're dead, Brian."

That should have taken me by surprise but I took the words like a compliment. I already knew that didn't I? I mean I'd just watched my own death.

Then the full weight of that statement came down on my shoulders. I would never walk again, never see any of my friends or my family or Chloe..

Chloe! The girl with the curly hair and pretty eyes. The girl I'd met in the clothing store and immediately connected with. The girl I could take long drives on boring roads with and never be at a loss for conversation. I would never see her again, never hold her hand or hear her laugh. All of this would be gone to me.

"There is a way we can bring you back, Brian." My eyes jumped to his face. He was serious. What did he mean 'bring me back'? As in come alive again?

"You can go back to the life of the living again. There is just one small thing you have to do for me."

I weighed my options. Go back to life and see Chloe but have to do one favor for a creepy guy or stay dead.

My choice was obvious.

"What do I have to do?"

"Just bring us the Unitor." he said. "And you can live out the rest of your normal life as if you'd never died."

"Who's us?" I asked, immediately on edge.

"We're called the Order."

When he didn't say more, I continued.

"The Unitor?" I asked. It sounded like a super hero name. "But I don't know who that is."

"You'll find out soon. And we'll be in touch when you return to life, so we you know where to bring them."

I nodded. "So there's no catch?" I said, suspiciously.

The man laughed, but wasn't smiling. "No catch. Just bring us the Unitor."

"Ok." I nodded, ready. "So how do I get back?'

"You're already leaving." he said. And I realized I was, the white glowing walls had already faded to gray and were getting darker.

"You have two weeks, Brian. And don't fail us, or you will not be as lucky as you were this time."

I only had time to fully understand his words before everything went black. I opened my eyes and stared up at me. The world seemed surprisingly dark, except for this one golden sun above me. My eyes focused.

"Chloe!" I breathed. "You won't believe what just happened."

"Wait, Brian. I have to tell you something first. Something I should have told you a long time ago."

I waited.

"Do you know anything about the Egyptian Gods?"

I shrugged. "A little, why?"

"Well those Gods, at one point they were real. They lived all over and had relationships with humans that created powerful half-god half-human races. One of them is the Mai. Related to the goddess Bastet, they were called the Mai. They.. um."

She looked at me, seemingly nervous.

"What?" I asked.

"You don't think I'm crazy, do you?"

"Chloe, I trust you. Remember?"

Her cheeks flushed and she looked away. She remembered.

"Anyway, The Mai used to protect pharaohs and actually lived with humans until the Mai got tired of taking orders and broke their sacred oaths. Now they live relatively normal human lives, unless of course The Order finds them and they have to fight them in order to survive."

My head spun. Did she just say The Order? Something about that name sounded family. "Why are you telling me this?" I asked nervously.

She stared, incredulously. "If you haven't figured it out by now-"

It clicked. "Oh! You're Mai."

She nodded. "And Alek and Jasmine too."

A thought came to me. "Is that why you survived being shot?"

"Err.. sort of." She replied.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, only I have nine lives to live. Everyone else has only one."

"Why do you have nine lives?"

"Because I'm… um I'm the Unitor. But... it's a long story and didn't you have something else to say to me anyway?"

My heart stopped and I tried to keep the sheer panic out of my voice.

"It's... nothing."


	4. Nightmares

Part Four: Jasmine

_Blood trickles down my hands. He pulls the knife away and walks backwards, slow enough that when I fall, I can still see every line on his face, every curl of his hair. The evil glint in his eyes and the twisted smile on his lips are like more knives in my chest, and I slip down, my head landing hard on the carpet. Tears well up in my eyes and I don't have the will power to stop crying. _

_My mom is staring at me. It's amazing how many emotions can be read in her face. The words, unspoken on her face, but her lips unable to move. My mouth twitches. I want to say something to her before we both die. I'm about to speak when the door opens to my apartment. It's Alek. I want to scream at him. Tell him to run, and of the danger leering so close to his face. There's no poison in me but I'm paralyzed. He says something to Zane, but the pain is unbearable and I can't make out specific words. The world is fading in and out of focus. Is this what it feels like to die? _

_Zane and Alek are fighting, but it's like they've been muted. I can't hear them, and if the ground shakes when Zane is pushed to the floor, I don't know. All I can focus on is the steady in and out of my breathing, trying to stay alive. I look over at my Mom again. Her body isn't moving and her skin is pale but she looks at me. She struggles to speak in the roar of the fight beyond me. _

"_Be safe.." she whispers. _

"_I will, Mom." is what I want to say, but suddenly I feel myself being scooped into Alek's arms. His body is hot from the fight and I grab onto his shirt to feel his warmth and keep breathing. By the time I look back at my mom, she's dead. _

My eyes open. Another bad dream, I think instinctively. Another nightmare.

But it wasn't a nightmare, was it? It was real, it had happened to me. Zane really stabbed me, he really did kill my Mom and my Mom... she really is dead.

My head is first filled with the pain and sorrow and utter sadness at the thought of my Mom, dead. All I had ever wanted to do was please her, up to the very end. But in the end it had been my fault, my stupidity that caused her to die.

Thoughts about Zane's betrayal then flooded my head. How could someone who I'd trusted just give away my life like that? I had thought he was special, thought he thought I was special. Because I hated to admit it, but Alek had always god to me when he said I would never date anyone and I'd thought that maybe this was the chance to prove him wrong. Maybe that's why I didn't realize. Maybe I was so determined to finally prove Alek wrong that I looked past his flaws and allowed him to take advantage of me.

I hated to admit it, but some small part of me still missed Zane. I'd gone farther with him than I'd gone with anybody and he'd been faking it the whole time.

I realized the lights were off in my room. I'd been keeping the lights on ever since I got back from the hospital. Something about the darkness reminded me of Zane, so whenever I could I blinded myself with lights. Someone must have turned off the lights.

I jumped up and threw my bed covers to the floor. I walked over to the light and flicked it on. Alek stood in one corner of my room. It would have felt like Twilight but Alek was sleeping, which vampires can't do, and I never could feel that way about Alek. He thought of me as a cousin and for all he knew we were.

When I hit the lights, Alek's eyes opened. He rubbed them and frowned a little.

"Sorry." he said, "Wasn't exactly planning on falling asleep."

"What were you planning on doing?" I asked.

"Umm.." he didn't answer. Ever since I'd come home from the hospital he had been acting different. He was always hanging around me, as if he wanted to ask me something and he never did. A week ago I would have pelted him with questions until he told me what he wanted, but I kept silent.

Instead I glanced around at my room. It felt so different to be here now. The memories of my mom were still in my room but it was faded and dulled by time. A picture of us stood on my bedside table. Next to it laid my clothes for the following day as always. I checked it out, already forgetting from the night before. It was a pair of black suede pants with a black long sleeved sweater.

Then I remembered. Tomorrow was my Mom's funeral. I pushed my head back into my pillow, fighting back tears because Alek was still in the room.

He seemed to sense that my thoughts had returned to my mom and he put his hand on my shoulder. But after a second, his body seemed to fill with tension and he pulled his hand away.

"It's not your fault, you know."

I looked away and uttered the words I'd been thinking all week.

"I just think she died disappointed in me."

The tears turned on again and I couldn't get them to stop. "It's my fault. If I'd only paid attention. If anyone could have figured out that Zane was evil it would have been me. I mean none of us knew, but if I hadn't been so swallowed up.."

Alek looked like he was having trouble breathing.

"What is it?" I asked through my tears.

"I… uh. Zane… well." He seemed to change his mind. "Never mind." he said.

It might have been a minute, or an hour but somehow my eyes had closed and I had fallen asleep. Alek was gone, but the curtains were open an sun streamed through the windows.

I looked at the clock. It was 8:30 and my mom's funeral began in an hour. I shot out of bed and put on the pants and sweater. I pulled my hair back into a ponytail and didn't even inspect myself in the mirror before I rushed out the door and-WHAM- straight into Alek.

"What the- oh, Jasmine. I was just going to wake you up. I think we should… go soon."

I nodded. We walked out of the apartment, got into his car and began the drive to the funeral hall.

After five minutes of blurred trees and buildings, the car stopped. We were at the funeral home. I took a deep breath and stepped out of the car, walking up the depressing cement steps towards what was certain to be a day that I would remember the rest of my life.

Suddenly, chills ran up my spine. I looked around and with my Mai ears I thought I heard something. Footsteps. I saw someone move behind a tree. A flash of brown, curly hair. Could that be?

Alek out his hand on my back and I jumped. "Are you okay?" he asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine. It's just for a second I thought I saw… never mind." I began walking again.

I couldn't say out loud what I thought I saw, because if that was true, it would be too terrible, too awful for me to imagine.

I thought I'd seen Zane.


End file.
